Access Is Different From Day-to-Day Control
A client may reasonably delegate campaign changes, reporting, workflow design, and other operating decisions to an agency. Delegation should not require blindness.
Good access design allows the agency to do the work while preserving client visibility and ultimate authority.
That usually means:
- the client has at least one current administrator for each critical account;
- agency access is granted through named users or a manager relationship;
- permissions follow role and necessity;
- billing and recovery contacts are current;
- shared credentials are avoided;
- material changes can be traced; and
- offboarding does not depend on the cooperation of one individual.
The correct permission level varies. "Client-owned" does not mean every employee receives administrator rights.
Which Accounts Should the Client Be Able to Access?
At minimum, inventory the environments that carry money, identity, data, customer journeys, or operating history.
Advertising
Google Ads and other media accounts Merchant, business, local, or listing profiles where relevant Billing profiles and payment administration Conversion actions, audiences, exclusions, and change history
Measurement
Google Analytics 4 Tag management Search Console Call tracking and form-routing tools Dashboard and data-warehouse environments Consent and privacy tooling
Customer and lifecycle
CRM Email service provider Marketing automation Scheduling Lead-routing and enrichment tools Customer-data or audience platforms
Website and brand
Domain registrar and DNS Hosting and deployment CMS Source repository Design files Asset library Font, image, and software licenses
Documentation
Strategy and research Message and claim registers Experiment history Tracking specifications Workflow maps Reporting definitions Access and offboarding register
If an environment is critical to continuity, someone on the client side should know that it exists, who administers it, and how access can be recovered.
Why Existing Client Accounts Usually Make Sense
When an agency links to an existing platform account, the client can preserve history, billing context, audiences, exclusions, learning, and change records.
Google states that linking an existing Google Ads account to a manager account leaves the original client account and its history intact, with existing users continuing to have access. Primary source: Google Ads Help →
That does not mean every platform or situation works identically. It does support a useful default: prefer transparent, revocable access to a client environment over unnecessary reconstruction inside an agency-only account.
What Does "Your Data" Mean?
The phrase needs precision.
The client should control its first-party business and customer data, decide who may access it, and approve how it is used. The agency should receive only the data necessary for the agreed work under the relevant privacy, security, retention, and contractual rules.
Data control should cover:
- source systems
- field definitions
- lawful-use and consent requirements
- access roles
- exports and backups
- retention and deletion
- vendor subprocessors
- model or AI-tool restrictions
- sensitive-data handling
- incident and offboarding procedures
A marketing page cannot settle data ownership or privacy obligations for every engagement. Those details belong in the agreement and operating documentation. AAYT does not provide legal advice.
What Does "Your Assets" Mean?
A usable continuity promise should identify the asset, format, and rights, not merely say "you own the work."
Potential client assets
- Approved copy
- Campaign structures and settings
- Creative files
- Website code and CMS content
- Research and strategy documents
- Dashboards and reporting definitions
- Automation maps
- Keyword, negative, audience, and testing registers
- Source files for custom graphics
- Deliverable specimens and templates created for the engagement
Important exceptions may apply
- Pre-existing agency methods or tools
- Third-party software
- Stock photography, fonts, datasets, and other licensed material
- Open-source components
- Platform-generated data and rights
- Personal data
- Assets the scope identifies as access-only rather than transferred
The statement should be backed by engagement terms that define deliverables, licenses, source-file treatment, reuse rights, and transition obligations.
Client Access Can Improve the Work
Access and transparency are not only offboarding protections.
They allow the client to:
- inspect what changed;
- connect marketing decisions with sales and business context;
- correct assumptions faster;
- involve compliance or legal reviewers where required;
- retain institutional memory;
- compare experiments over time; and
- make informed decisions about insourcing, hiring, or changing providers.
The agency still has a role: organize the work, reduce noise, recommend priorities, and execute within the delegated authority.
A Practical Access Model
Use four levels.
Client administrator
- Held by a current client employee or approved internal owner.
- Controls recovery, critical permissions, and provider transitions.
Agency operator
- Receives the access required to implement and optimize the agreed scope.
- Named users or platform manager relationships are preferred.
Reviewer
- Read-only or approval access for finance, compliance, legal, executive, or other stakeholders who need visibility without operating authority.
System integration
- Service accounts, APIs, or automations with limited scopes, documented owners, and revocation procedures.
Review access at kickoff, after material scope changes, and during offboarding. Remove stale access promptly.
What Should Happen at Kickoff?
Create an access and ownership register before execution becomes complex.
For each platform or artifact, record:
- Client owner
- Agency owner
- URL or account identifier
- Current administrator
- Required permission
- Billing owner
- Recovery method
- Data classification
- Deliverable or license status
- Offboarding action
Platform Client owner Agency access Billing · recovery Data class Offboarding action
Google Ads 000-000-0000 A. Client, Ops Manager link, named users Client card · client admin Business Unlink manager, audit users
GA4 property A. Client, Ops Editor, named user n/a · client admin Business Remove user, export configs
CRM workspace B. Client, Sales Operator seat Client billing · client admin Personal Revoke seat, confirm retention
Domain + DNS A. Client, Ops None, request-based Client card · registrar 2FA Identity No action, verify contacts
Sample. Purpose-built illustrative rows, not a real register.
Confirm that the client can sign in directly. Do not treat a screenshot of an agency dashboard as equivalent to account access.
What Should Happen During the Engagement?
Continuity is maintained, not handed over at the end.
- Keep change history and experiment notes.
- Store approved deliverables in an agreed client-accessible location.
- Document material tracking and workflow changes.
- Review permissions when people or scope change.
- Export data or configurations where the platform permits and the scope requires it.
- Record third-party license dependencies.
- Make final decisions and unresolved risks visible.
- Stage 01Inventory
- Stage 02Permission
- Stage 03Operate
- Stage 04Document
- Stage 05Review
- Stage 06Transition
- Stage 07Revoke
The client does not need to manage every file. It should be able to find the current source of truth.
What Should Happen at Offboarding?
A transition should be a planned operating procedure.
- Confirm client administrators.
- Transfer or remove access as appropriate.
- Deliver agreed source files and final exports.
- Reconcile billing and subscription ownership.
- List active automations, tags, feeds, and integrations.
- Document unfinished tests and known issues.
- Preserve required records.
- Revoke agency users, keys, and tokens after handoff.
- Confirm what the agency may retain under the agreement.
Google explains that client accounts retain their data and can unlink manager access; its documentation also recommends granting manager ownership only when those privileges are required. Primary source: Google Ads Help →
How AAYT Intends to Work
AAYT may oversee advertising, analytics, CRM, website, and workflow decisions when a client delegates that authority. The client should still retain appropriate access to the underlying environments and visibility into the work.
AAYT's intended standard is:
- use client environments where practical;
- grant access by role;
- document the source of truth;
- preserve claim, experiment, and decision history;
- deliver agreed assets in usable formats;
- make third-party and pre-existing-IP exceptions explicit; and
- plan transition from the beginning.
The value is not ownership language by itself. It is lower lock-in risk, better decision continuity, and clearer accountability.
Questions Buyers Ask
Usually, an existing client account should be linked when one already exists and is usable. If a new account is necessary, define who creates it, who holds client-side administration and billing, and how transition will work before launch.
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